Intentions to Marry, 1889

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840401, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, May 23 2025

Page 053

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1880 Registrar John Owen Lord

Date of Notice

Names and Surnames of Parties

BDM Match

Condition

Calling or Profession

Age

Dwelling Place

Length of Residence

Marriage Place

Folio

Consent

Date of Certificate

Officiating Minister

1 March 1880

James Albert Brown
Martha Cooper

Bachelor
Spinster

Manager
Housekeeper

29
25

Epsom
Ponsonby

29 years
30 years

St. James's, Wellington

80/71

1 March 1880

Rev. H. F. Macgill, Presbyterian

No	1
Date of Notice	1 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Albert Brown	Martha Cooper
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Manager	Housekeeper
Age	29	25
Dwelling Place	Epsom	Ponsonby
Length of Residence	29 years	30 years
Marriage Place	St. James's, Wellington
Folio	80/71
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. F. Macgill, Presbyterian

2 March 1880

John Pilcher Thomson
Martha Shannon

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Housekeeper

31
24

Sydney
Mt. Eden

4 years
24 years

Dwelling House

80/75

2 March 1880

Rev. W. Calder, Ch of England

No	2
Date of Notice	2 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Pilcher Thomson	Martha Shannon
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Housekeeper
Age	31	24
Dwelling Place	Sydney	Mt. Eden
Length of Residence	4 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling House
Folio	80/75
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Calder, Ch of England

2 March 1880

Joseph Dean
Martha Johnson

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Housekeeper

37
19

Auckland
Ponsonby

37 years
2 years

St. Albans Church

80/82

Frederick Johnson, father

2 March 1880

Rev. W. Calder, Ch of England

No	3
Date of Notice	2 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Dean	Martha Johnson
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Housekeeper
Age	37	19
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Ponsonby
Length of Residence	37 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Albans Church
Folio	80/82
Consent	Frederick Johnson, father
Date of Certificate	2 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Calder, Ch of England

4 March 1880

John Ball
Elizabeth Catherine Davis

Job Ball
Elizabeth Catherine Davis
💍 1889/620

Bachelor
Spinster

Dealer
Housekeeper

30
22

Auckland
Auckland

20 years
22 years

St. Benedict's Church

80/96

4 March 1880

Rev. A. E. D. O'Hara, R. Catholic

No	4
Date of Notice	4 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Ball	Elizabeth Catherine Davis
BDM Match (89%)	Job Ball	Elizabeth Catherine Davis
	💍 1889/620
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dealer	Housekeeper
Age	30	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	20 years	22 years
Marriage Place	St. Benedict's Church
Folio	80/96
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. E. D. O'Hara, R. Catholic

4 March 1880

Thomas Hall
Helen David Mackay

Thomas Hall
Helen Baird Macky
💍 1889/59

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor
Housekeeper

30
24

Ponsonby
Otahuhu

30 years
24 years

Samuel Christie, Baird

80/135

4 March 1880

Rev. J. Mackay, Presbyterian

No	5
Date of Notice	4 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Hall	Helen David Mackay
BDM Match (89%)	Thomas Hall	Helen Baird Macky
	💍 1889/59
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor	Housekeeper
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Ponsonby	Otahuhu
Length of Residence	30 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Samuel Christie, Baird
Folio	80/135
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 March 1880
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Mackay, Presbyterian

4 March 1880

William Hickey
Mary Campbell Coster

Bachelor
Spinster

Carter
Housekeeper

21
22

Freeman's Bay
Auckland

4 years
4 years

Registrar's Office

80/124

4 March 1880

J. Owen Lord, Registrar

No	6
Date of Notice	4 March 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Hickey	Mary Campbell Coster
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carter	Housekeeper
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Freeman's Bay	Auckland
Length of Residence	4 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	80/124
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 March 1880
Officiating Minister	J. Owen Lord, Registrar

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).